Under the Zimbabwe Programme, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) is one of our closest partners. Via both RWI’s Sida-funded Programme and the EU-funded Action, RWI has been collaborating closely with the ZHRC to enhance its human rights capacity and effectively deliver its mandate through targeted support to areas of priority for the Commission. These have included training on general and theme-based courses and workshops.
Additionally, organising roundtables with several national and regional institutions has been key in increasing the Commission’s visibility and interaction with other national and regional stakeholders.
The cooperation with ZHRC also includes support for outreach and awareness-raising activities carried out by the Commission. Over the years, such initiatives have covered issues such as human rights during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also training on human rights and the Zimbabwean Constitution to recruit correctional officers of the Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Service. Such initiatives increase awareness of ZHRC’s role and mandate and provide support to the Commission’s ability to deliver on its mandate.
Expanding ZHRC’s access to relevant human rights materials has also been a key goal of the cooperation. Literature support has been provided to the documentation centre of the Commission, while manuals and policies have been developed or updated. These are important resources for the sustainability of results, contributing to the institutionalisation of knowledge. The institute has also supported the ZHRC in enhancing its reporting capabilities, which have since become one of the Commission’s key strengths, allowing for more comprehensive and effective reporting. The development of relevant materials has been an important outcome of our current cooperation with the ZHRC; for instance, a gender policy was developed as a result of collaborative work during the last seminar on gender equality.